28th February 2011

The trouble with buying a new car is that subsequently all the major costs come at the same time each year - last week was the service and MOT, this week the tax and next week will be the insurance.

27th February 2011

Today we went to visit our friends and their three children. The weather for once was reasonable and so after lunch we hit the local park. Dad kept the elder two boys entertained with football whilst we entertained the younger one on the swings and see-saw, the latter of which was possibly a challenge for Mr W's half-marathon weary legs!

26th February 2011

Mr W laughs at my tendency to take photos of food for this blog, but sometimes mealtimes are the most inspiring point of the day if there's not much happening! Today we had a late lunch of lasagne to re-fuel Mr W following his morning tube run and in advance of his partaking in the Tunbridge Wells half-marathon tomorrow.

25th February 2011

As part of my de-cluttering drive a couple of weeks ago I decided to start sorting through all my cooking magazines and cutting out recipes that I wanted to keep. That task is finished now and I am left with a pile of partially decimated magazines to pass on to a teacher friend for her children to use for collages and a pile of recipes to stick into the nice book that I bought for the job.

24th February 2011

Mr W has just headed off to run to Bodybalance since our car is still being serviced. We always joke that he looks like Hiro Nakamura from Heroes when he does this as he has his yoga mat slung across his body like a sword

23rd February 2011

It's my parents 40th wedding anniversary in April and so they're going to have a party to celebrate, however as they are currently galavanting around the world it has been left to me to send out the invites. It should have been a relatively simple task - stick a 'no presents please' label on the back of the invite and an address label on the envelope. Unfortunately though my brain wasn't fully functioning this afternoon and on more than one occasion the address label ended up on the invite rather than the envelope - whoops! Still all sorted now, just need to remember to stick stamps on the envelopes...

22nd February 2011

Bit late home from work this evening so we decided to have fish and chips for tea - rather naughty but definitely nice!

21st February 2011

Yesterday Mr W brought some daffodils home from the shops but they were still in bud, however this evening when I got home from work I noticed that the majority are now showing off their full yellowy glory!

20th February 2011

Out on our decking this morning and noticed that one of our pots hasn't really survived the winter...

19th February 2011

For Christmas Mr W gave me some posh shampoo and conditioner as recommended by my hairdresser - it's supposed to be good for your hair as it doesn't contain silicon or any other nasties. Unfortunately though I can't confirm or deny its benefits yet as today was the first day that I've used it as I'd been trying to use up my previous shampoo to avoid having too many bottles cluttering up the bathroom and as is always the way when you want something to run out quickly it seemed to take on never-ending properties!

18th February 2011

After my rant the other day about charity donation bags, I decided to tackle the huge pile of them in the cupboard under the kitchen sink. As you can see there was a whole bagful of them, next stage is to take them along to the supermarket to stick in the plastic bag recycling bin!

17th February 2011

I left work a little earlier than usual today and so it was still light when I walked across London Bridge which gave me an opportunity to see just how tall The Shard is getting. It hardly seems like yesterday when you could look down into the foundations just outside London Bridge station.

16th February 2011

The rare sight of my filing tray with nothing in it...

Although if I'm honest it's mostly because the contents are in piles around the study awaiting actual filing, but I will get round to it eventually, honest!

15th February 2011

The Folly bar and restaurant opened near my work just before Christmas and I walk past it most evenings on my way to the station, but tonight was the first night I've actually been in when we met up with an old uni friend of Mr W's after work. It's a rather quirky place with lots of mismatched furniture and tealights in vintage style teacups on the tables, but for a Tuesday evening it was heaving with people so it's clearly found a gap in the market!

14th February 2011

Happy Valentine's Day!
To be honest I tend to find this all a bit commercialized and the thought of being crammed into a restaurant with twenty other couples being forced to eat what the restaurant's owner considers to be a romantic menu horrifies me. Instead Mr W is in the process of cooking us a nice steak supper at home!

13th February 2011

Spring suddenly seems to be arriving this week and I noticed today that the first green shoots of life are starting to show in my pots of bulbs on the decking.

12th February 2011

Now, I don't want to sound un-charitable but I do get annoyed by the plastic charity collection bags that are always coming through our front door. I am happy to give my unwanted goods to charity but on my terms and when I want to - I don't want it thrust upon me. Today when I got back from town there were two bags from the same charity on the door mat - I was not impressed, especially as I my cupboard under the sink is bulging with un-used donation bags. Seems like more de-cluttering is necessary!

11th February 2011

As you might have guessed from my blog earlier this week I'm not a big fan of tasks like filing and de-cluttering, but having not been tidied since we moved into our house three years ago the top drawer of my bedside cabinet was getting to be rather full. So this evening I have emptied it out and thrown away some of the clutter, which rather bizarrely contained several expired bank cards, empty envelopes and a pair of old shoe laces. The tidied drawer may still look quite full, but believe me it's nothing compared to what it was like...

10th February 2011

For a change this week I've been wearing my puffy winter coat to work rather than my usual long black one. Not quite sure what prompted this variation - possibly the thought of being wrapped up in the snuggliness of it - but I'm liking it. The only downside is that it's not much good at keeping my legs warm when it's cold in the mornings!

9th February 2011

Another postcard from my parents arrived today - we've got quite a collection now. They've been away for less than a month and already we've got cards from Singapore, Perth, Sydney and Ayers Rock.

8th February 2011

Feeling rather pleased with myself tonight, as for the first time I've actually managed to complete the Sudoku in the Evening Standard. Normally I get stumped after entering the obvious numbers and end up giving up or running out of time as my train pulls into my stop.

7th February 2011

If there's one chore I hate, it's filing. But Mr W said I had to do something about my overflowing filing tray tonight, so as a start I am emptying the tray and creating piles on the desk instead...

6th February 2011

After last night's takeaway, Liz and her boyfriend, James, cooked Sunday lunch for us today. Check out the two microwave situation in the kitchen behind James - when moving-in Liz first of all failed to notice my Mum's microwave and then couldn't get it to work, so she decided to bring her own along!

5th February 2011

Today we drove down to Dorset to catch-up with our friend, Liz, who is house-sitting for my parents whilst they're on their round-the-world jaunt. In lazy mode we opted for Chinese takeaway for tea tonight, including duck which Mr W offered to shred for us - it seems though he was more intent on eating it all himself!

4th February 2011

I'm lucky to still have my gloves this evening. I took them off whilst I was paying for my goods in a shop this morning and unwittingly left them on the counter, something I didn't realise until hometime when I looked in my bag to put them on. Happily though when I went back to the shop my gloves were still there just behind the counter - my lucky day!

3rd February 2011

Kung Hei Fat Choy!
Today marks the start of the Chinese year of the rabbit so what better excuse to get Mr W to put on his rabbit costume for my photo of the day, sadly we could only find the head at short notice!

2nd February 2011

This afternoon I went to a meeting at the British Chamber of Shipping. Fortunately I consulted with my colleagues before heading off to the meeting as it was located in a complete different place to what I thought!

1st February 2011

This is the moment Mr W arrived home tonight after running back from work. I'm impressed he's still smiling after 2h 40min on his feet and nearly 17 miles added to his weekly tally! Or maybe the smile is just because he can see his tea waiting for him on the side...